"GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON
WHY I SHOULDN'T LET YOUR FATHER SKIN YOU ALIVE!?"

"No reason aside from you
losing your only son and heir."

"Shit, I'll just train Bra."

"Riiiiiight."

Bulma turned red and ready to
explode until she realized how impossible her alternative option
was. Yes, her son needed to live...a little while longer at least.

"FINE! I'LL JUST HAVE YOUR
FATHER PUNISH YOU LATER!"

"Is there any meals ready?
I'm starved! Oh, and the time machine flies nicely--once I made
some adjustments. You really ought to check them out. I've improved
the performance of the engine you designed by over forty percent."
Trunks replied smugly only to finish with a patented smirk.

"WHA-AH-OOOOOHHH!!! How dare
y--" Bulma spattered out as she watched her son turn and
enter the house. She stormed immediately after, ranting and raving
all the way there. Whether she was ready for it or not, her son
was becoming more and more like his father everyday.

Vegeta heard the commotion and
entered the living room to see what was going on. Since this was
'his' territory, he was continuously nosy about anything that
went on within it. He didn't say anything and just assumed a relaxed
pose against a wall, amused that a 'fight' was occurring.

Bulma had grabbed her son from
behind. When she touched his shoulder, he spun around to face
her, his brows down and his eyes for a moment, flashed super saiyan
green. It was a super saiyan's way of giving warning, and Bulma
knew it,but stood her ground. She didn't tame her mighty saiyan
prince by showing weakness afterall and her son would be even
less of a task.

She was about to get in his face
and give him a real verbal thrashing, but suddenly she
lost all train of thought. Her nose wrinkled as she took in several
sniffs. Trunks was baffled momentarily then remembered the little
'trick' from the other timeline. He still had that hooker's perfume
smell on him!

"What cheap hussy did you
sleep with while there eh? The ones in this timeline aren't good
enough for you?"

"I didn't sleep with anyone
mother. It was just a little prank I was trying to play on your
other self."

"I'm not laughing and I doubt
neither was she. Now I'm beginning to wonder if those tabloid
articles about you are really true."

"C'mon mom, you know better!"

Bulma raised an inquisitive eyebrow
in challenge for her son to go further into his defense.

"I haven't slept with anyone,
not even myself for months!"

"And I'm supposed to believe
that?"

"Geesh mom. Honestly, can
you think me to be that low?"

"If the shoe fits."

Trunks tossed her the capsule
containing the time machine. "If you want to know so bad,
go back and ask them yourself. Now, if you are finished mother,
I've got some business to attend to."

"With your zipper up or down?"

"MOTHER! For your information,
I have some work type business to attend to. You walked out of
an important deal with Pakar. And if I recall correctly, I left
this timeline roughly two hours before an emergency meeting that
I called. I'll be at the office, but don't bother calling, I won't
answer." Trunks sternly explained as he slammed the door
behind him.

Bulma stared at the door with
mouth agape. Vegeta smirked. His son had just stood his ground
against a very powerful entity. The boy had balls afterall. But,
another powerful entity must be acting upon him to cause such
a sudden change in personality. Yes, the next few days or weeks
would certainly prove amusing to the mighty prince of saiyans.

"My baby boy...what did I
do to deserve this? Now I know how ChiChi felt with Gohan."
Bulma wimpered as she turned and rolled the capsule in her hand.
Her eyes suddenly caught a figure standing ever confident with
smug grin against the wall across the room.

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT VEGETA!"
she yelled at him before storming out of his sight. Vegeta's smirk
widened as he followed suit with opportunity in mind. His mate,
in this condition, was prime for a little romp to help her 'cool'
off.

Meanwhile, at Capsule Corporation
Headquarters, Trunks entered his office only to find his secretary
hustling about as if her skirt was on fire.

"May I help you?" he
asked cooly and softly, not wanting to startle her since she hadn't
noticed him enter. It startled her anyway.

"Sir! I've been setting up
this meeting for you and everyone's here, but then when I came
to get you, you were gone, so I've been--"

"Relax, take a breath, and
don't worry. I'm here now aren't I?"

She nodded. Trunks was known for
his unusual punctuality or lack thereof. He offered his hand to
retrieve the files in her hand. "I suppose those are the
files I'll need to get this thing on track correct?"

"Yes sir. I have Pakar's
and Sukoya's earnings and stock charts, and I--"

"Rui?"

"Yes, Mr. President?"

"Take a deep breath, count
to ten, then go here. Tell them I sent you." Trunks said
as he handed her a business card or rather a personal pass to
his favorite massage parlor. It was Western Capital City's best
of course.

"Sir? But what about---"

"I can handle it alone."

"You-"

"Please don't start sounding
like my mother. Both of you seem to underestimate me. Now go relax,
please?"

Trunks' secretary nodded as she
handed him the files. Trunks in turn, set the files on his desk
then assisted her with her jacket. After she departed, he grabbed
the files and headed for the Conference Room. He was actually
rather excited at the challenge before him. Like Gohan,he had
rerouted many of his saiyan urges and lust for physical battle
into that for mental battle. And naturally, if the mental battle
began to fail, he could always resort back to the physical. An
effortless ki blast through a wall to make a new air duct to the
outside always had a stunning impact on those in attendance.

As he walked into the room, all
verbal commotion became silence and all eyes trained on him. He
quickly noticed Marron in attendance as well. He strode to his
place at the head of the table with confidence and quickly made
contact at the two opposing sides of the table. Shareholders from
Pakar, Sukoya, and Capsule Corp were in attendance as well as
Trunks' senior officers sans his mother. The only unknown was
which senior officers were following his ideas and which were
following his mother's. But, this meeting should be able to pry
them out if he worked it carefully enough. And with one final
glance, he spied one more figure in attandance, one who was seated
on the same side as Sukoya...Pan.

So, once again, both Pan and Marron
were in the same room and on opposing sides no less. Trunks wondered
to himself an old saying, "why can't we all just get along?"
before he took a deep breath and began the meeting with a summary
of what is and has been currently occurring between the three
companies. Strangely enough, as he discussed the conditions and
backed them up with the charts and graphs, he found that his personal
life was following a similar flow chart. A ominous triangle with
fluctuating sides led to distorted angles and were always shifting.
Outside of this triangle were lines shifting in wave like patterns
as the triangles gave or took ground. Yes indeed, there were times
when business and personal life could be compared. They might
not always mix, but there were strategies that could be used in
both instances. Trunks was beginning to see them now. His visit
to the past also allowed him to see the triangular image in 3D
rather than 2D as he knew some stuff he normally wouldn't in the
course of a regular life. And from that triangle, Trunks suddenly
saw his path straight and true, right through the middle of it.

"With Sukoya and Pakar merged
into one solid company and Capsule Corporation as its backbone,
we could sever the competition with one fell swoop. All companies
will emerge profitable and sustainable. Stocks should rise in
favor of this as we build up a solid wall against the competition.
With them blocked, we have open market." Trunks said as he
drew a diagonal line right through the middle of the triangle
on the overhead transparency. The triangle now showed a pyramid
and a trapezoid. The pyramid indicating upward growth should the
two companies scale back and grow together. The trapezoid was
Capsule Corporation, lending a firm foundation of strength and
stability. The wave lines outside would disappear. No one could
threaten this stable structure.

Plugging a few numbers into the
computer, Trunks brought up a projected growth line in stock of
this new merger. It did its usual dip and rise, but the general
trend line did indeed show growth, even if the economy were to
settle into a recession. He allowed the groups to now discuss
his ideas to themselves. Meanwhile, Trunks himself, couldn't help
but stare at the figure he'd drawn. It was so easily applied to
this situation, but could it also be applied to his own life just
as easily? If so, who was the pyramid and who was the foundation?
Would those wavy lines still be there? He already knew the severing
line was himself. In an opposite idea from a merger, he imagined
the severing line being a permanant split. Make Pan and Marron
go their separate ways without him? This was a possibility too.
Wavy lines would only go away if they all remain friends with
no harsh feelings or resentment towards one another. His eyes
trained back onto the attending members, specifically Marron and
Pan. Neither were engaged in conversation with their groups but
rather seemed locked in a stare down with one another. Trunks
sighed disappointendly...perhaps he needed to add a ringer to
the group? Grabbing his beeper, he typed in a small message and
sent it to another beeper number.

His personal life was indeed going
to influence the outcome of this meeting whether he wanted it
to or not. Pan and Marron were the leading representatives for
the two other companies, and he, himself headed the third. Their
own triangle was indeed here and overlaying atop the business
one. And to add to the complication, he noticed that his own senior
officers were in disagreement with one another. This meant that
his mother did indeed have a faction of her own undermining her
own son's decision making abilities. He was unsure as to who exactly
was running Capsule Corporation. He did on a daily basis, but
his mother loomed in the shadows with the ability to veto his
decisions with a single word. Though she had never challenged
his choices before, she seemed to be doing so now. Chairwoman
vs. CEO...mother vs. son, this was going to be yet another complication.
Plus, his own personal life was mixed within this tangling web.
Well, one thing was for sure, once the media and press figured
this out, they were going to have one hell of a story!

Looking at the picture before
him once again, he focused on the straight line. Could he run
through his own mother as well? Would she take that stance as
a positive or negative thing? As he was thinking, his senses picked
up on the growing silence and eyes training upon him. It was time
to continue once again. But one thought stained Trunks' brain...*I
walk alone.* With yet another glimpse at the straight line he'd
drawn, he followed its trajectory which led away from all of it
and into a pure blank space on the sheet. What was that space?
Would it be running away or was it a finding of serenity and solution?
Whatever it was, it would have to wait. For now, he had business
to attend to.

Elsewhere in the city...

Immediate stress eased, a new
one took its place. Bulma couldn't stand it any longer. Her son
was conducting business to perhaps alter a decision she had made
and she wasn't invited to defend her own position! So, in true
Bulma fashion, she bolted into her favorite air car and sped off
for the company headquarters. There was no way she was going to
be left in the dark, and most especially, not by her own son!

Also, in another part of the city...

Bra's beeper went off. Looking
at it, she noted the message. Whether or not she showed it, she
cared for her brother. He was actually asking for her help? How
could she resist? She quickly made her way to the checkout counter
without even completing her inspection of the sale items in the
rest of the store. She needed to get to Capsule Corp's HQ ASAP!

to be continued...

Next time...bring an umbrella,
the turds are gonna be flyin' in grand Briefs style!